Keeping Old Ways Alive #2

***This is what Keeping Old Ways Alive #1*** is all about. In large part, eastern Oregon (USA) is cattle country, and it is very common for the... more

by Lynne and Don Wright

Title

Keeping Old Ways Alive #2

Artist

Lynne and Don Wright

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

***This is what "Keeping Old Ways Alive #1"*** is all about. In large part, eastern Oregon (USA) is cattle country, and it is very common for the ranchers to do what they can to emulate the orignal cowboy practices. Calf branding time can almost be a party atmosphere, bringing friends and family to come together to celebrate their heritage, and do necessary work at the same time. For these folks, brandings take on a similarity to old time 'barn raisings', in that the "party" moves from one ranch to another. These folks rely on their skills on horse back to bring the cattle into corrals, oftentimes as the end of an honest to goodness cattle drive, versus modern day ways of using pickups and trailers. Not only do these folks do the branding, but at the same time dehorn calves as needed, castrate the bull calves, and give them all preventative medical treatment. Shown here is the branding iron fire & and a couple of irons heating to the point of being red hot. I had the pleasure of attending one or two of these get-togthers, and it was not only very interesting, but fun as well. Not too much fun for the calves, of course! At the end of the day's work, everyone would move to the main house for a huge feed put together by the wives.

Uploaded

May 26th, 2014